High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Thermotherapy for Scar Treatment.

The formation of pathological scars is a common medical and aesthetic problem worldwide. Surgical interventions, burns and injuries are the most common cause. Treating these scars is a challenge for any surgeon. The Clinic of Plastic-Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery with Thermal Trauma and Imaging Diagnostics applied an innovative method of thermotherapy with high-intensity, focused ultrasound in 20 patients with hypertrophic scars and keloids of different age, etiology and parameters. After a series of procedures, we got excellent results, reducing scar size, pigmentation, pain and itching. This type of thermotherapy is successfully applied to pathological scars. In this way, a change in scar density is achieved by converting hard collagen into a gelatin-like mass.As a subsequent procedure, moderately compressive massages are applied for faster resorption of the pathological collection. Our results show that high-intensity focused ultrasound thermotherapy of pathological scars is a non-invasive method of treatment with reasonably good results as regards both aesthetic and functional aspects.

Les cicatrices pathologiques sont un problème médical et esthétique ubiquitaire, rencontré principalement après traumatisme, brûlure ou intervention chirurgicale, dont le traitement est un défi pour tout chirurgien. Le service de chirurgie plastique, reconstructrice et esthétique a utilisé une méthode innovante de thermothérapie par ultrasons à haute intensité focalisés pour traiter les cicatrices hypertrophiques ou chéloïdes, d'origine variée, de 20 patients. Après une série de procédures, nous avons obtenu d'excellents résultats sur la taille, la pigmentation, la douleur et le prurit. Cette technique permet de transformer les fibres collagènes en une masse gélatineuse, qui se résorbe plus rapidement après massages. La thermothérapie ultrasonique focalisée à haute intensité est une méthode non invasive de traitement des cicatrices pathologiques qui donne des résultats corrects, tant du point de vue esthétique que fonctionnel.

[Structure of Neuroglobin from Cold-Water Sponge Halisarca dujardinii].

The iron-containing protein neuroglobin (Ngb) involved in the transport of oxygen is generally considered the precursor of all animal globins. In this report, we studied the structure of Ngb of the cold-water sponge Halisarca dujardinii. In sponges, the oldest multicellular organisms, the Ngb gene contains three introns. In contrast to human Ngb, its promoter contains a TATA-box, rather than CG-rich motifs. In sponges, Ngb consists of 169 amino acids showing rather low similarity with its mammalian orthologues. It lacks Glu and Arg residues in positions required for prevention of hypoxia-related apoptosis. Nevertheless, Ngb contains both proximal and distal conserved heme-biding histidines. The primary structure of H. dujardinii neuroglobin predicted by sequencing was confirmed by mass-spectrometry analysis of recombinant Ngb expressed in E. coli. The high level of Ngb expression in sponge tissues suggests its possible involvement in the gas metabolism and presumably in other key metabolic processes in H. dujardinii.

The Role of Epibionts of Bacteria of the Genus Pseudoalteromonas and Cellular Proteasomes in the Adaptive Plasticity of Marine Cold-Water Sponges.

It was found that cells of different color morphs of the cold-water marine sponges Halichondria panicea (Pallas, 1766) of the class Demospongiae differ in the content of epibionts of bacteria of the genus Pseudoalteromonas. The sponge cells with elevated levels of epibionts of bacteria of the genus Pseudoalteromonas showed an increased expression of Hsp70 proteins but had a reduced level of the proteasomal catalytic beta 5 subunit, which was accompanied by a change in their activity. Probably, epibionts of bacteria of the genus Pseudoalteromonas may affect the ubiquitin-proteasome system in the cells of cold-water marine sponges and, thereby, ensure their adaptive plasticity.